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11 Ways to Create Shareable Posts [Blogging Infographic]

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blogging-tips-image-canva

Don’t miss these must-know blogging tips!

Are you blogging for your business? Do you want to know how to write a blog post that generates click throughs, engagement and sharing via social media channels? As research shows, posts featuring lists are a great way to do it!

There are all sorts of reasons why, including the fact that the brain loves specifics, and a headline that tells the reader how many points there are lets him or her know exactly what to expect. Users also respond to a numbered list more than any other type of headline; the longer the better and for some reason odd numbers perform better than even numbers. In fact, a BuzzFeed study showed that 25 was the best number to use for your list when blogging.

Blogging Tips: How to Create a Shareable Post

How do you create blog posts that are more likely to be shared? The infographic below from Siege Media details specifics, but here are a few key takeaways:

  1. Include a keyword in the title
  2. Use a keyword in the URL
  3. Opt for an odd number (odd numbers generate 20% more clicks than even)
  4. Follow through on what you promise in the headline (consumers are 23% less likely to engage with a brand after reading disappointing content)
  5. Make your blogging text concise, scannable and objective (this can improve readability by 124%)
  6. Use high quality images (they get 121% more shares)
  7. Choose a photo that’s reddish-orange in color
  8. Size your picture to be 735 pixels wide
  9. Add text to your image (Canva is a great way to do this)
  10. Ask those mentioned in your post to share it (reaching out to at least 3-5 people can increase traffic times 3)
  11. Ask those who have shared your previous posts to share it

Does anything in the blogging infographic below surprise you? Let me know in the comments!

blogging-tips-infographic

Special Offer: Complimentary Consultation

Three Girls Media, Inc. is a public relations and social media management agency founded in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley with a team in the Seattle area. We love working with small and emerging companies across the nation to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs.

Call 408-218-2391 or Contact us today to arrange yours!

The post 11 Ways to Create Shareable Posts [Blogging Infographic] appeared first on Three Girls Media.


Blogging & Social Media for SEO Results

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Do you know how blogging and social media impact SEO?

Do you know how blogging and social media impact SEO?

There’s no question that blogging weekly and posting on social media daily are two of the best and most important ways to boost the online visibility of your business. You may have heard about search engine optimization (SEO), editorial calendars and a variety of scheduling tools that can help you better manage your business online, but what do they all mean?

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by everything you need to do as a small business owner, let’s go over SEO, editorial calendars and scheduling tools to help you become an efficient industry leader online.

WHAT IS SEO?

According to Search Engine Land, SEO (search engine optimization), “is the process of getting traffic from the free, organic, editorial or natural search results on search engines.” This means that when a customer looks for something online, the websites at the top of the results have a high SEO ranking. Being at the top of an Internet search sounds like a great deal, but how do you get there without having to pay for your position at the top? Turns out there are simple tactics you can use in blog posts and social media to help your SEO ranking and visibility soar.

BLOGGING FOR SEO

When writing a blog post keywords are…key! Whatever your topic is, you want to make it clear your blog post is about that topic and is beneficial to readers. If your blog deals with pet grooming for example, it is important you use that phrase and other industry terms throughout the post. The most important places to use a keyword are:

  1. The Title
  2. Introduction
  3. Section Headers
  4. Body
  5. Conclusion
  6. Image Caption
  7. In The URL

If you are a visual learner, this video explaining SEO for blogging is easy to watch and follow.

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SEO

You may think what you post on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn is strictly limited to followers on those sites. However, posts and posting habits of businesses on social media have a direct impact on SEO standings. Follow these tips to use social networks as a tool to increase search engine results:

  1. Post on Social Media Often using Keywords
  2. Attract High Quality Followers
    1. It’s not always about how many followers you have, but about the level of interaction they engage in. It’s better to have 200 followers who like and retweet posts rather than 20,000 who do nothing.
  3. Use Visuals
  4. Become a Social Authority Figure
    1. The more your business shares posts and links from other accounts in your industry, the more helpful you appear, which holds weight in SEO algorithms.

So now that you know the importance of blogging and social media for SEO, how can you implement these tips into an effective work schedule? This is where editorial calendars for blog content and social media updates come into play.

EDITORIAL CALENDARS FOR BLOGS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Do you have an editorial calendar for blogging and social media?

Do you have an editorial calendar for blogging and social media?

Writing relevant and timely social media posts is essential for having a rich and lively business page. When customers and fans see an update they like and have an opinion about, they are compelled to comment, like and share. One way to stay current on trends is to create an editorial calendar. If you’re not sure what an editorial calendar is or what you should include, here is everything you need to know.

WHAT IS AN EDITORAL CALENDAR?

An editorial calendar is used by bloggers and social media managers to create a plan for their posts. These calendars include notable events they want to include in upcoming weeks and months. Creating an editorial calendar is a great way stay organized, on track and help you to remember important dates.

What your calendar looks like is up to you; there is no right or wrong way to plot out a topics and events for your blog and social media accounts. Some people prefer to take it week by week, while others like to go big and tackle a month at a time. Review these different types of editorial calendars and decide which is right for you and your business. More importantly than what your calendar looks like, is that it works well for you.

WHAT TO INCLUDE

  • Weekly Trends

Participating in weekly trends on social media has become one of the most effective ways to connect with your audience. Some of the most popular trends for businesses are #ManicMonday, #TransformationTuesday and #ThrowBackThursday. Make a note in your calendar to include a picture of a crazy Monday morning at your office, or an image of what your business looked like a few years ago, on #TransformationTuesday or #ThrowBackThursday. Forgetting about #ManicMonday doesn’t do you any good when you remember on Tuesday; writing it in your editorial calendar will help you stay on top of trends.

  • Hashtags

While weekly trends are preceded with a hashtag, using them in a post with keywords is another great way to improve SEO and increase your visibility online and on social media. As suggested earlier, if your business is about pet grooming, use hashtags related to that topic so when customers are searching for information your posts, website and insights show up first. It’s as simple as tagging #PetGrooming.

  • Holiday & Event Information

For the busiest small business owners, it can be difficult to forget about major holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. These celebrations are easy to include in your editorial schedule, but what about other subtle holidays or industry events? For a current and interesting blog and social media pages, try writing about odd or interesting events that could be fun to share. The website Days of the Year can help business owners track and monitor themed days they may want to write about.

For example, it might be beneficial for a pet grooming salon to follow the Westminster Kennel Club and post who is Best in Show, which is seen as one of the highest accomplishments and events in the canine community. This provides a business with an opportunity to engage their customers and audience by asking if anyone is watching and what they thought about the competition.

  • Business News

Have you ever been so busy at work preparing for an event or product launch that you forgot to tell people about it? Don’t make this mistake again! Making a note in your calendar to schedule event updates and product information will help keep your audience aware of news. This will build excitement and create an opportunity for a dialog among fans; writing updates is important to both the small business owner and customer.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU POST

Post frequently on social media for SEO results.

Post frequently on social media for SEO results.

Now that you’ve got your calendar for blog posts and social media updates planned out, it is time to start writing. Take important quotes or facts from articles, include your opinion and/or a call-to-action when you write your updates. It is recommended that you should blog once daily and schedule your posts at the same time of day throughout the week. If blogging daily is too much to handle, at minimum update your site with fresh content once a week and schedule the post at the same time each week to boost SEO results.

For social media, a much higher frequency is necessary. Again, it all depends on what your small business can handle, but a general rule is 2 times per day on Facebook, 3-5 times per day on Twitter and once per day on LinkedIn.

SCHEDULING AHEAD

Not only is it beneficial to plan and write your blog topics and social media posts in advance, another huge time saver is scheduling your posts ahead of time. It can be seemingly impossible to know how busy each day of your week is going to be. If you have plans to post an interesting article you found on Facebook or Twitter, but a work emergency comes up, there goes that post for the day in addition to the consistency your audience expects and the SEO results you need. If you can carve out a few minutes each week after you’ve finished writing a blog and social media updates, use online tools such as Hootsuite and SproutSocial to schedule posts in advance.

Hootsuite and SproutSocial allow business owners to connect their social media accounts all together in one place, and enables users to post content, links, images and videos directly to their page. This can greatly save time is one way to ensure that you will be consistently posting and improving the SEO ranking of your business. Each tool also allows you to pick what time of day you want your post to go live to ensure maximum visibility and interaction.

As important as it is to post regularly on social media, don’t forget to interact on the different platforms. Take some time to follow fans back, like or retweet their comments and respond directly to any questions or concerns they may have. Social media and customer service are becoming one in the same, and how you react on Twitter or Facebook can have a direct influence on customer relations and your reputation.

As small business owners are finding, blogging and social media have a great impact on the visibility of their company online. Understanding what SEO is and how important it is to a business can lead owners to put more effort into blogging and social media. To better manage the uptake in work, it is beneficial to create an editorial calendar as well as schedule content ahead of time to make daily tasks easier.

If you are finding that this seems like too much work for you to handle or are having a hard time with your current efforts, give Three Girls Media a call to learn more about what we can do for your business and how we can increase your SEO rankings through blogging and social media. Contact us today for a complimentary 30-minute consultation!

 

Special Offer: Complimentary Consultation

Three Girls Media, Inc. is a public relations and social media management agency founded in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley with a team in the Seattle area. We love working with small and emerging companies across the nation to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs.

Call 408-218-2391 or Contact us today to arrange yours!

The post Blogging & Social Media for SEO Results appeared first on Three Girls Media.

Generating Blog Topics [4 Tips for Finding Inspiration]

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If you run a blog for your business, you know generating blog topics can be one of the biggest hurdles to disseminating information about your company. To give your customers valuable and relevant content, try these four tips to find inspiration.

an image of the word 'blog' spelled out in blocks.

How do you generate topics for your blog?

Generating Blog Topics [4 Tips for Finding Inspiration]

  1. Answer Commonly Asked Questions

Are there any questions customers ask you time and again? Writing the answers in a blog post can help clear up confusion and allow you to point clients in the right direction for answers. When generating blog topics for this, try writing down questions you’re asked every day for a week, then answer them in an in-depth article.

  1. Teach Your Audience Something

A “how-to” or do-it-yourself article can be an excellent asset to your business blog. Generating blog topics for this is easy when you think about common problems your customers have and walk them step by step through the process. Content that is relevant and helpful to consumers is more likely to get shared and talked about.

  1. Read Other Industry Blogs

It can be easier to generate blog topics for your site if you know what others are writing about. Take some time to read other industry blogs and websites to find out what kind of content people are reading. You can write similar posts, publish follow up pieces or offer your point of view on the matter.

  1. Write a Guest Post

If you find yourself short on time or inspiration, try publishing a guest post! Enlist one of your top team members to share their skills, write about their daily experience on the job or answer questions. Guest posts help establish credibility on your site, making you look more like an industry expert.

Answering common questions, reading other business’ sites or guest posting can all be great tips when seeking inspiration for generating blog topics. Blogging helps to add a personal touch to your business website and allows you to showcase your skills in action. For more tips on maintaining a blog, check out more articles on ours today!

Special Offer: Complimentary Consultation

Three Girls Media, Inc. is a public relations and social media management agency founded in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley with a team in the Seattle area. We love working with small and emerging companies across the nation to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs.

Call 408-218-2391 or Contact us today to arrange yours!

The post Generating Blog Topics [4 Tips for Finding Inspiration] appeared first on Three Girls Media.

Infographic: The Anatomy of a Strong Blog Post

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See the full infographic below to create a strong blog post for your business!

See the full infographic below to create a strong blog post for your business!

We’re excited to introduce Three Girls’ newest infographic! How can you craft a blog post that’s compelling for both your readers and the search engines? This graphic breaks it down into a few sections for you:

  • The Title
  • The Content
  • The Format
  • The Images
  • Helpful Tools
  • Additional Tips

Want to learn more about how to include blogging as part of your company’s digital marketing strategy? Check out the full infographic below and contact us for a complimentary 30-minute consultation!

3G.Infographic.AnatomyOfABlogPost.7.19.2016

Share this Image On Your Site

Special Offer: Complimentary Consultation

Three Girls Media, Inc. is a public relations and social media management agency founded in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley with a team in the Seattle area. We love working with small and emerging companies across the nation to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO, and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs.    Call 408-218-2391 or contact us today to arrange yours! 
 

The post Infographic: The Anatomy of a Strong Blog Post appeared first on Three Girls Media.

How to Leverage Blogging for Stellar Customer Care

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With so many companies for consumers to purchase from, what often sets a business apart is how well it handles customer service. The care of your consumers’ complaints, issues and potential problems is a big deal; customers who have a hard time giving feedback or receiving answers to their questions may cease doing business with a company in favor of another option. Luckily, you can use your business’ blog to handle a segment of your customer care strategy; read on to learn how.

customer service support

Are you using blogging as part of your customer care strategy?

The Benefits of Blogging for Your Business

Blogging for your business may be time consuming, but it is worth the effort! Here are just a few of the benefits that blogging for your company can provide:

  • Boosting your online visibility
  • Positioning yourself or your business as the go-to expert in your field
  • Giving you access to your target audience on a national (or international) platform
  • Establishing industry credibility
  • Amplifying awareness and recognition of your brand
  • Increasing traffic to your website and social media accounts
  • Providing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) benefits every time you publish a piece of new content
  • Allowing you to test new ideas and gauge consumer responses
  • Involving your whole team; have them each write a blog post and rotate through a schedule to lighten the load

Another hidden benefit of blogging for your company is the ability to address customer questions in a more public format. Rather than answering queries as they arise, you’ll be able to share common FAQ’s right on your site so those looking at it can find the answers they need without needing to contact you directly.

Ideas for Leveraging Blogging for Stellar Customer Care

Try to Provide the BEST Answer

Anyone can answer a common question, but can your company provide the best answer amidst the social media noise? Setting yourself apart with relevant, well-researched advice will propel you to the top, making you look like a more credible resource than your competitors. Also share your answers on social media; Facebook is an excellent vehicle for spreading your company blog posts. According to Buzzsumo, a “Best Answer Post” includes these ten key elements:

  1. Address the Question Being Answered: This sounds like an obvious tip, but Buzzsumo suggests making it clear that your audience is asking the question you’re answering, so people will pay attention to your advice. If you aren’t sure what questions are being asked, have a chat with your customer service or sales teams; they should have deeper insight.
  2. Let Readers Know What They Will Learn: By promising something of specific value to your readers, they will be more likely to click through to the post and are ready to learn about your subject.
  3. Demonstrate Credibility: If you are a store that specializes in all-natural food products, you wouldn’t write a post about learning how to boogie board. Likewise, the boogie boarding company probably shouldn’t highlight the differences between two health food brands. In addition to speaking on topics with which you have authority, you should also do lots of research to add credibility and authoritativeness to your article. When possible, bring in perspectives from multiple different sources.
  4. Share Examples or Case Studies: Hard numbers are difficult to refute. Include as many examples, facts, statistics or case studies in your article as you can, and you will appear like the industry expert you are.
  5. Be Timeless: The best answer you can provide is one that is timeless in nature. Buzzsumo illustrated an example of this, where are article Copyblogger wrote on writing good headlines was still driving traffic to the post after it had been published for more than seven years. If you write the best answer to a common question, it won’t become irrelevant. If you want to publish something that’s timelier, you can always update the article or provide a second look later on down the road.
  6. Keep the Article Updated: As we touched on above, updating your articles regularly is a great way to make sure they are the best answer for your readers. Stay up on trends and update your article with the latest research, facts and figures.
  7. Be Comprehensive: According to Buzzsumo (and strongly recommended by Three Girls Media), long-form content is king. Writing a post that’s comprehensive, well-research and authoritative can be done best in at least 1,500 words. Plus, that will give your SEO a boost.
  8. Summarize Your Answer: If your post is long and detailed, your readers may not have time to take in the whole thing. It’s helpful to provide a summary at the top or in your introduction. Also, at the end of the post, summarize your findings in the conclusion.
  9. Make it Scannable: Pay attention to the structure of you post. Is it broken into multiple subheadings or sections? Does it include numbered lists or bullet points? These elements will help your readers digest the post and read it quickly, while still understanding the main points.
  10. Educate Your Readers: No one will read your article if they already know the information you’re providing. Be sure to provide some new advice, helpful insight or hot industry trend.

Write a How-To Article

It may seem counterintuitive to write a “how-to” article when you are driving customers to seek out your services, but giving away some of your secrets can have a positive impact not only on your customers’ perception, but also when blogging for SEO. Search engines give preference to sites that offer high-quality consumer-friendly content, so it can be beneficial to write some articles in this style. Just be sure to do these three things:

Be sure to get in touch with your customers' needs.

Be sure to get in touch with your customers’ needs.

  1. Identify and Write to Your Readers’ Needs

Writing to your customers’ needs is important when blogging for customer care; the first thing you should do after picking a topic is assess the needs of your readers. As the expert in the field, you likely know much more information than the average consumer. Think about information you would be most interested in learning if you had no knowledge on the topic. If you aren’t sure what customers are asking for since you don’t deal with them directly, try collaborating with your social media or sales teams to gain insight into common questions, concerns or complaints.

  1. Include Relevant Keywords

Blogging for SEO depends on knowing and using the main keywords to make sure your topic gets ranked high in search results; this is also important for customer care since you’ll want to identify what keywords and phrases your customers are searching for when they’re looking for answers online. To determine what the main keywords and phrases are, all it takes is a simple Google search; this is an easy way to get started and see what others in your field are writing about.

  1. Offer a Compelling Headline

If you spend precious time writing an article for your customers, it’s important to make sure you entice them to read it! Take time to craft a headline that will make them click and urge them to read more by using a noteworthy statistic or surprising new spin on the topic. Try using a headline tool that can help you score your chosen title; at Three Girls, we use this great one from CoSchedule.

Consider this blog post as an example! I’m assuming you were convinced to read this article based its title, especially if you’ve made it this far. I used CoSchedule’s headline tool to write it, but it wasn’t always this compelling. After revising the title four times (see the photo to the right) based on the feedback provided by CoSchedule, I landed on How to Leverage Blogging for Stellar Customer Care. Using a tool like this can help you identify weakness in your headlines and help you revise them to be the best they can be.

This example illustrates how to create a compelling headline.

This example illustrates how to create a compelling headline.

By using blogging for customer care and answering common questions directly on the company website, your customers will appreciate how accessible and easy to work with your business is. On the other hand, you should also learn as much about them as possible to best serve them. Here are five questions you should ask your customers.

5 Questions to Ask Your Customers

  1. How did you find out about us? This will help you determine which outreach efforts are working, and help you determine where you should be allocating your marketing dollars.
  2. What do you feel sets us apart from our competitors? It’s always a good idea to find out why your customers come to you instead of another business in your field. This can also help you identify areas of opportunity or challenges you are facing.
  3. Did you visit our website? If so, did you find it helpful? Getting feedback on your company website or blog will help you provide stronger content and become a more valuable resource to your customers.
  4. If you had a problem or issue, did we resolve it? If so, please share details. You’ll want to make sure all of your team members are responding to situations quickly, thoroughly and professionally.
  5. Have we made it easy for you to provide feedback or get ahold of a customer service representative? This will help you assess the strength of your company’s customer care efforts.

For more tips on business blogging, check out these additional articles:

3 Blogging Tips for Newbies

11 Ways to Create Shareable Posts [Blogging Infographic]

[Digital Marketing] 7 Common Blogging Mistakes

Blogging and Social Media for SEO Results

[Business Blogging] 4 Reasons to Blog for Your Company

Are you ready to leverage blogging as a customer service strategy? We’d love to help you connect with you clients and customers! Contact us today for a complimentary consultation with our CEO for advice and tips on how to make it happen!

Special Offer: Complimentary Consultation

Three Girls Media, Inc. is a public relations and social media management agency founded in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley with a team in the Seattle area. We love working with small and emerging companies across the nation to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO, and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs.    Call 408-218-2391 or contact us today to arrange yours! 
 

The post How to Leverage Blogging for Stellar Customer Care appeared first on Three Girls Media.

Effy Says…Blog!

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A photo of Effy the dog with text about the power of blogging.

As Effy says, blogging can increase your ROI.

Is blogging part of your company’s marketing strategy? As Effy says, prioritizing your business’ blog increases your potential ROI!

Stay tuned for more of Effy’s insight, or connect with Three Girls on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest tips and tricks from our favorite office dog!

The post Effy Says…Blog! appeared first on Three Girls Media.

Effy Says…Blogging Works!

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Here’s why you should start blogging for your business!

Research shows consumers rely on blog posts for information and advice, and that articles hosted on a company’s website can drive purchases.

Stay tuned for more of Effy’s insight, or connect with Three Girls on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest tips and tricks from our favorite office dog!

The post Effy Says…Blogging Works! appeared first on Three Girls Media.

6 PR Takeaways from a 100th Birthday Party in the Philippines

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Recently, I made a long international journey from Washington State to Manila, Philippines. The purpose of the trip was to celebrate my grandfather’s 100th birthday and spend time with my relatives for a family reunion, which made it all worth the combined 64 hours of traveling it took to get there and back home. These 64 hours gave me lots of time to think, read, binge-watch television and come up with the following six PR takeaways. Read on to find out what I learned from the trip.

What PR lessons can be learned from a long international journey? Read on!

What PR lessons can be learned from a long international journey? Read on!

6 PR Takeaways from a 100th Birthday Party in the Philippines

  1. Celebrate Milestones

There was excitement in the air when I arrived in Manila and reunited with my family members; we were all overjoyed that the reason we were there was to celebrate my grandfather’s 100th birthday! It is an amazingly impressive milestone to have lived that much life, and I’m so glad I could be there to celebrate, hear the stories and see all of the photos from throughout his impressive journey.

Celebrating milestones brings people together, and you should incorporate this into your public relations strategy to pique peoples’ human interest. When your business celebrates an anniversary, share about it! Better yet, turn it into an event that your clients and customers can be a part of.

At Three Girls Media, we celebrated our 10th business anniversary last year by holding a staff retreat. Since we are all located in different locations, it was a great way to bring all of the team members together and get to know each other even better. We also took pictures, created a hashtag and shared about it on social media so our clients and fans could share in the excitement. Learn more about how we leveraged our recent milestone here in this article.

  1. Honor Your Past

Part of our family reunion and birthday party included a photo slideshow of old pictures from when my grandparents, parents and even I were growing up. It was so touching to see my grandparents’ faces light up when they were reminded about past vacations or their children’s early birthday parties.

Honoring and remembering the past is an important part of human life, and people are naturally drawn to their history. Keep this in mind as you craft a blogging or social media strategy; you may want to include updates showing your company’s past and how far you’ve come to get where you are today. Your customers will appreciate that you respect the past and are proud of your accomplishments over the years. Capitalize on hashtags like #ThrowbackThursday for maximum exposure.

  1. Create a Tagline or Hashtag

While you can use a variety of hashtags to capitalize on daily or weekly trends, you should also create a tagline or hashtag that’s specific to your business or event. For our Filipino reunion, we used “Adan@100” and put the tagline on t-shirts to separate the event from others. Not only did it create a sense of camaraderie throughout our big, blended family who visited from all over the world, it also clearly stated the reason we were all together: to celebrate my grandpa’s 100th birthday!

These branded t-shirts helped pull the event together.

These branded t-shirts helped pull the event together.

Each time you have an event, a new promotion or an exciting new product, you should create a custom hashtag about it! Here are three good reasons to do so:

  1. You’ll See Increased Engagement:

    Encourage your event attendees to use a custom hashtag during and after the event; it helps them to get involved and helps promote interactive fan engagement. You can also live-tweet or post during the event to add to your live feed; this will help you showcase attendees’ social media posts that contain your custom hashtag.

  2. It’s Hassle-Free Publicity:

    Capturing each moment of an event is nearly impossible, especially for large-scale functions or if you don’t have a designed social media manager who is responsible for live-posting. You can use social media more effectively by providing your attendees with a hashtag that will allow them photograph moments from the event and share them with their own followers on social media. This will expand your event’s reach to many more users on social platforms, and can provide you with access to a new audience you were previously unable to reach.

  3. You’ll Be Able to See Instant Feedback:

    Getting event attendees to respond to a post-event survey or respond to your recap emails can be a daunting task, especially with larger events. However, a custom hashtag will allow you to stay on top of everything happening at an event as it occurs via social media. As attendees post messages and photos from the event, you will also be able to engage with them long after the party is over. Consider following attendees who used social media throughout the event to strengthen the relationship with your audience. Social media interactions via likes, shares, shout-outs and posts are a two-way street!

  4. Brand Your Content

Not only were our family reunion t-shirts branded with the Adan@100 tagline, but I also encountered another genius version of branded content via the airplane’s onboard entertainment system. I was thankful for the mini TV screens in the back of the seats in front of us, especially since the flights were so long!

One thing I noticed was that while much of the content provided were relatively newly released TV shows and movies, a lot of the content was specifically branded for American Airlines. It provided behind-the-scenes looks into popular TV shows with actor commentary and this struck me as an excellent way to infuse your content with your brand’s personality.

  1. Know Your Time Zone

To get to Asia from North America, the best way to fly is across the Pacific Ocean. When we had passed the tail-end of Alaska, the flight attendants announced that we had just crossed the International Date Line. This meant we had now “traveled through time” (if you will) and were now living a day ahead of when we had left. It reminded me of how important it is to communicate times and dates within the correct time zone.

Always make sure to get your time zone right.

Always make sure to get your time zone right.

This PR takeaway may sound silly, but it’s actually one of the most common mistakes when doing business with people across multiple time zones. Always double check times; you wouldn’t want your client or yourself to call in to an interview at the wrong time, or send off a press release before the embargo had been lifted due to a miscommunication in timing.

  1. Learn from Airports

It was a long journey; all the time I spent in airports and airplanes taught me the following 6 lessons:

  1. Be Prepared:

    The rules of air travel are clearly laid out; there’s a three-ounce restriction for liquids, having to take your shoes off at security and always remembering to bring the right identification. Just like you should be ready for takeoff as soon as you reach the airport, you should be ready with your public relations plan before the campaign officially kicks off. Be sure to prepare your tactics and events well in advance so you’re ready for your publicity to soar.

  2. Once You Post, You Can’t Go Back:

    Once you’ve boarded the plane, you can’t return to the airport for any reason; you should also remember that you can’t take back content once you’ve published it. Be sure to proofread everything and remove mistakes before posting, so you’re always putting your best foot forward. If you find that you’ve made a mistake, make sure you have a crisis communications planin place to help mitigate the damage.

  3. Be Nice to Competitors:

    Since they are all vying to fill their seats with the same travelers, airlines work hard to create loyal customers. They share common space at the airport, as competitors, and manage to work together peacefully side by side. You don’t see an “American-Airlines-Only” airport, so use this as a PR lesson to cooperate and learn from your competitors, respectfully. Don’t badmouth your competition on social media platforms; that’s bad form and will give your brand a negative reputation.

  4. Stay Current:

    Recently, many major airports have been renovating their buildings to prepare for larger crowds of travelers. These new renovations often feature hip restaurants and specialty shopping areas. By listening to what your audience is interested in and accommodating their needs, you will create a loyal group of followers and even happier customers. In your social media campaigns, it’s important to keep up-to-date on current trends in order to create content your audience is currently searching for, and has shown an interest in.

  5. Expect the Unexpected:

    Since airports are such crowded and hectic locations, remember to expect the unexpected when you begin your trip. By preparing yourself for anything that could go wrong, and knowing how you will react, you’ll save yourself a headache once you reach the terminal. Likewise, in your public relations campaign, be sure to strengthen your crisis communications planjust in case your message isn’t received as planned.

  6. Be Early:

    Showing up early for your scheduled flight is the best way to make sure your travel plans go off without a hitch. Arriving early means you’ll be less rushed when going through ticketing, checking your luggage and security checkpoints. If you’re early with your public relations efforts, you’ll also be more likely to succeed. Be aware of lead times for various media outlets and send pitches to reporters well in advance of their deadline to really stand out amongst the crowd.

I’m so glad I had the opportunity to travel to the Philippines and celebrate my grandpa’s 100th birthday! The long time I spent traveling also helped me strengthen my public relations approach. If you’d like to help your business’ publicity soar, we would love to help! Contact us today for more information. In the meantime, be sure to check out these other helpful articles:

3 Public Relations Lessons from Vacation

Building a Crisis Management Plan

Social Media Strategy Tips from A Vacation Planner

 

Special Offer: Complimentary Consultation

Three Girls Media, Inc. is a public relations and social media management agency founded in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley with a team in the Seattle area. We love working with small and emerging companies across the nation to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO, and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs.    Call 408-218-2391 or contact us today to arrange yours! 
 

The post 6 PR Takeaways from a 100th Birthday Party in the Philippines appeared first on Three Girls Media.


Asked and Answered: 9 More Facebook Marketing Questions

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Back in August, I shared about 7 commonly asked Facebook marketing questions and offered advice for embarking upon a successful social media marketing campaign. There are many benefits of having an online presence, and no company should miss out on the value of being on social media.

Facebook marketing, like any other project, requires research. We like to use a powerful tool called Buzzsumo  to help us generate ideas, find relevant keywords, learn about new industry trends, reach out to social influencers and monitor online mentions. Buzzsumo helps us provide relevant content for both ourselves and our clients.

What questions have you always had about Facebook marketing?

What questions have you always had about Facebook marketing?

Buzzsumo’s Susan Moeller recently shared an article with the answers to 56 common Facebook marketing questions, including both the company’s insight and Mari Smith, who has been dubbed the “Queen of Facebook.” Last time, we answered seven of those questions; here are the answers to nine more.

9 More Common Facebook Marketing Questions, Answered

  1. What types of posts perform the best on Facebook?

Buzzsumo’s Insight:

Buzzsumo found posts that included a question at the end performed better than other types of content. Their research included questions that had been set up by Facebook’s poll function. They also found that posts containing a question and an image did much better and gained more engagements than other types of posts.

Three Girls Media’s Insight:

We agree; engaging your audience with a question and asking them for their input is an excellent way to make them feel like part of your community. It not only helps your audience feel respected, valued and heard, but will also increase the likelihood that you receive valuable feedback and insight into their habits, actions and behaviors.

We also believe in using what we like to call the 80/20 Rule. While your business is interesting, news about it alone isn’t enough to hold your readers’ attention. Instead, follow this formula to provide real value to your customers: 20 percent of your content can directly promote your business, while 80 percent of the updates you share should be non-self-promotional. Your non-self-promotional content can be anything that is relevant to your industry, including trends, facts, memes, news, quotes, videos or case studies.

  1. How should I design a Call to Action in order to maximize Facebook engagement and drive social reach?

Mari Smith’s Insight:

Instead of going straight for the sale, first try to build a relationship with your audience to maximize organic reach and establish yourself as an industry leader. If you have a social media marketing plan in place and are trying to promote existing content, install the Facebook tracking pixel on your website. Publish your engaging, helpful content and post an update about it on Facebook. Let that content reach its organic audience first, then assess the success. Then, you can promote it via Facebook advertising and encourage users to read your article.

Three Girls Media’s Insight:

The best way to encourage organic reach and maximize user engagement on Facebook is to provide the best, most helpful content for your audience. With the internet’s massive reach, chances are your fans can find the information they need in a wide variety of places. Instead of hoping they come to you or paying to boost an advertisement, first use your resources, skills and abilities to offer them the best content possible.

  1. How many people access Facebook via a mobile device?

Buzzsumo’s Insight:

A whopping 90% of Facebook users access the social network via their mobile device! It’s also important to note more than half of those users access the site exclusively on mobile, and never log on via a desktop browser. This means any Facebook marketing strategy you embark upon must be designed with mobile users in mind.

It's important to consider mobile users.

It’s important to consider mobile users.

Three Girls Media’s Insight:

At Three Girls Media, we recommend frequently testing your social pages via mobile phone or tablet to see how images, like your profile picture and cover image, are appearing to users. They may look fine on a desktop browser, but seem stretched or pixelated on mobile. It’s a good habit to check in weekly to make sure things are going smoothly.

  1. What’s with the blue checkmarks? What are the benefits of having a verified Facebook page and how can I get one?

Buzzsumo’s Insight:

Verifying your page has several benefits. It not only increases your brand credibility, but it also helps you gain audience reach that might otherwise be lost to pages pretending to be you. Only blue checkmark pages have access to a feature called branded content, which allows businesses to co-promote content. You can learn more about branded content here.

Three Girls Media’s Insight:

Sites like Facebook and Twitter offer verification for brand pages; this comes in the form of a blue checkmark next to the business’ name. Many marketers take advantage of this feature as it helps you fans avoid potential scams by proving to your audience that your page is the official profile of your company or brand. Have more questions about the blue checkmark? Learn more about Facebook verification here.

  1. What are Instant Articles?

Buzzsumo’s Insight:

In an effort to reduce website load times and maximize the time users spend on Facebook, the social network has opened the platform to publishers, which allows them to upload content within the site instead of redirecting fans to other websites. It has indeed increased the speed at which users can view content; Facebook reported load times up to 10 times faster on mobile.

Companies that want to take advantage of this feature have to load at least 50 articles to get started, and the initial batch of articles is subject to review and approval. Advertising and analytics are also part of the platform.

Three Girls Media’s Insight:

We always encourage taking advantage of all available tools; after all, they are there for a reason!According to Buffer, using this service can be of great value to businesses; just check out these three impressive statistics:

  • Instant Articles received 20% more clicks than mobile web articles from the Facebook News Feed
  • Once someone visited an Instant Article, they were 70% less likely to abandon the article before reading it
  • On average, Instant Articles are shared 30% more often than mobile web articles
  1. What’s the different between an embedded video and Facebook Live?

Buzzsumo’s Insight:

Embedded videos are not native to the social platform; they are recorded outside of Facebook, and then uploaded directly to the site. Conversely, Facebook Live videos are up-to-the-minute broadcasts from within Facebook itself.

Try using Facebook Live to promote your next event.

Try using Facebook Live to promote your next event.

  1. What are some Best Practices for Facebook Live?

Three Girls Media’s Insight:

Facebook Live is a valuable tool that allows you to let your audience in on your world in a very real way. It’s a great way to showcase events or sneak peaks of your products. Here are five best practices to abide by.

  • Make sure you have a strong connection. No one wants to watch a video that’s full of glitches, shakes and static. Make sure your Wi-Fi signal is up to the task by creating a practice video. If the quality is lacking, try to find a new location to shoot. Luckily, Facebook also has you covered; if your connection is poor, you won’t be able to begin recording as the record button will appear gray.
  • Add a personal touch. It’s likely that you’ll receive comments during you live video, and this is a precious opportunity to connect with your customers in a live conversation. This is not always possible with clients in remote locations, so take the opportunity to personalize the experience by calling them out by their names when you address their questions and comments.
  • Know your purpose. While you could share a Facebook Live video for any reason, make sure you are really providing value to your viewers. Have a game plan and set an agenda for the video so you stay on track. It can be helpful to try a practice run before going live.
  • Go with the flow. When you’re live, anything can happen. Be prepared to ad-lib on the fly and tackle situations as they arise.
  • Stay positive. When a disgruntled fan posts a comment on your profile, it isn’t always seen by everyone, and you have some time to decide how you will reply to them (we encourage you always reply, and avoiding deleting the comment unless it’s truly offensive). During a live video, you may have to converse with them on the spot and you’ll want to always stay positive.

8. Should you post prior to going live letting people know you will be doing a live show?

Buzzsumo’s Insight:

According to Facebook, the best way to encourage your audience to watch your upcoming live video is to let them know about it beforehand.

Three Girls Media’s Insight:

You’ll want your followers to be well informed about any upcoming events (including a live video), so work it into your social media plan. Create several Facebook updates announcing your show and include a strong Call to Action encouraging your audience to attend and share about it with their friends.

  1. How long should my business’ Facebook videos be?

Buzzsumo’s Insight:

While videos can be as long as 90 minutes, Facebook recommends a live broadcast be at least 10 minutes. Longer broadcasts give people more time to discover them as they happen, and can increase the likelihood that they will share them with friends. If you aren’t broadcasting a live video, they should be much shorter than that to keep your viewers’ attention.

Including the insight from these nine questions and answers will help your Facebook marketing strategy grow stronger and help you reach a wider audience. Here are some more helpful articles that have advice for small business social media marketing:

Facebook Fans: Why Don’t They Like Me?

Facebook Marketing for Small Businesses

[Social Media Marketing] 4 Tips for Turning Fans into Customers

Facebook Fans: How to Get Them and Keep Them

Tips & Tricks for Business Facebook Pages

 

Special Offer: Complimentary Consultation

Three Girls Media, Inc. is a public relations and social media management agency founded in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley with a team in the Seattle area. We love working with small and emerging companies across the nation to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO, and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs.    Call 408-218-2391 or contact us today to arrange yours! 
 

The post Asked and Answered: 9 More Facebook Marketing Questions appeared first on Three Girls Media.

Advice for Sprinkling Holiday Spirit into Your Marketing Strategy

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The holiday season is upon us, and with it comes a fantastic opportunity for your business to connect with its customers in a fun, new way. There’s still time to take advantage of the holidays and resonate with your audience throughout the season. Here are 13 ways to inject the holiday spirit into your digital marketing strategy, starting with social media tactics.

Spread holiday cheer through your marketing strategy.

Spread holiday cheer through your marketing strategy.

Holiday Spirit in Marketing: 13 Strategies

  1. Combine Social Media with Traditional Marketing Strategies

You put lots of effort into all aspects of your business’ marketing, from printed advertising materials like fliers, brochures and advertisements, to pamphlets, handouts or coupons. This holiday season is the perfect time to offer seasonal deals like a Holiday Doorbuster sale or New Year’s event. To get the most mileage out of your efforts, be sure to combine your social media tactics with traditional marketing strategies. Include social media handles on all content you produce so customers can find you everywhere.

  1. Update Your Profile and Cover Images

Get in the holiday spirit by customizing your profile and cover images with holiday flair! Find a seasonal graphic (that you own the rights to), and use a custom editing tool like Canva to make it your own. Be sure to include your business name, logo and other important details to maintain brand consistency. It’s also a good idea to stay all-inclusive to avoid alienating your customers, so steer clear from overtly religious references and make way for all beliefs and holidays this season.

What makes a great social image? Here is some advice:

  • Showcase your authenticity
  • Enlist the help of a local celebrity or community leader using your product
  • Show your personality
  • Include a call-to-action
  • Use consistent branding include colors, fonts and imagery
  • Include your logo and business name
  • Use high-quality images that you own the rights to
  • Pay attention to recommended image dimensions
  1. Hold a Holiday Contest

Contests are a great way to engage with your customers and the holiday season is an excellent time to get into the giving spirit. Offer a prize to your fan who correctly answers a holiday trivia question, or ask your followers to guess the theme of your newest product or service. A contest will excite your audience and help raise your online engagement.

Have you ever held a social media contest?

Have you ever held a social media contest?

While contests are incredibly common around Halloween, they also do well during the holiday months, since people spend more time online due to inclement outdoor weather. Make sure you hold a contest that is both relevant to the holiday and to your brand. Some great examples are an apparel company holding an ugly sweater competition over Facebook Live video, or an animal sanctuary hosting families for a White Elephant gift exchange.

  1. Create a Limited Edition Product or Service

Many business owners focus mainly on products and this lends well to holiday marketing. Create some limited edition models of your most popular products, with a holiday theme like a new pattern or print. Then offer them as a special product that customers can buy only during the holiday season, or as stocking stuffers. Consumers love being part of something exclusive, and offering something for a limited time increases demand.

In addition to products, you can also promote holiday services, like gift certificates and events for the holidays. Make sure to spread the word by announcing it in local media, through a customer email blast or hire a publicist to get the word out. Just remember to get the word out about your event or service in a timely manner, as publications have strict lead times you should be aware of.

  1. Try a Holiday-Themed Sale

    Offer something of value to give customers a reason to make their purchase now.

    Offer something of value to give customers a reason to make their purchase now.

The holiday season may be long, but it goes by quickly! Your customers are likely busy as the year wraps up, so planning ahead is key. Be sure to offer them something of value and give them a reason to make their purchase now, instead of next week. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are obviously big shopping days, but you can take advantage of lesser known themes like a 12 Days of Holidays Sale, where a different product is discounted each day. Holding a themed sale like this will insert urgency into your consumers’ minds and build their anticipation.

  1. Publicize Your Holiday Events

Promoting your business’ events is as important as planning them. You put lots of effort into planning and executing events, so don’t let that go to waste! A happening is only successful if your target audience attends and you are able to reach as many potential customers as possible. Be sure to spread the word through many different avenues, including press outreach, blogging, sending e-newsletters, posting physical fliers, contacting local influencers, sharing on social media and encouraging word of mouth. A robust marketing strategy has many different moving pieces that work in tandem.

  1. Share a Virtual Holiday Card

Email marketing is another arm of your digital marketing strategy that could benefit from holiday cheer. Creating and sending a virtual holiday card of end-of-year themed company newsletter provides another way to reach out to your customers on a personal level and build rapport. They’ll see you as a company that cares, and it will raise your brand awareness this holiday season.

  1. Create a Holiday Hashtag

Hashtags offer businesses the power to distinguish themselves within their market, while raising their updates’ visibility on social platforms. All you have to do is create one! When holding a holiday-themed event, offering a limited edition product or sharing about your holiday plans, be sure to use your custom hashtag to file each update together. The best ones are short, sweet and to the point, like #WinterWonderland2016 or #FallFestivalFun.

You can also try jumping on current trends and holiday hashtags, like #SnowSunday, #FestiveFriday or #WrappingPaperWednesday. These hashtags don’t need to always be directly connected to your service or product, but should be a fun way to keep your fans and followers interested in your page among the holiday hustle and bustle.

  1. Encourage Partner Engagement

Many times, holiday events are hosted by several organizations as a joint effort to help lower the cost for each company. This is a great way to make your event as large as possible, while also encouraging beneficial partnerships within your community. You can also pull in a local personality or influencer as a special guest. Just be sure to encourage the engagement of your partners; if you’ll be publicizing the event via social media, they should as well. You can also take to social sites like Twitter and thank them for the attendance after the event.

  1. Leverage Social Media Advertising

Unfortunately, it’s not quite enough to set up an event page on Facebook and expect guests to begin to RSVP “Yes.” We also encourage using native social advertising like Twitter ads, Facebook ads and promoted posts. These tools offer a unique way to target your message to specific geographical locations, down to individual cities, so you can be sure your message is reaching the right local audience.

  1. Give a Behind-The-Scenes Look

Not everyone will be able to attend your holiday event, so finding other ways to involve non-attendees is a great idea. Give a behind-the-scenes look at the event setup to raise anticipation, offer a short sneak-peek interview with your special guest, live stream videos from the party as it happens and share photos of attendees. This can help anyone who is not physically there still feel like they’re included and part of the holiday magic. As you share these updates, it’s also a great time to thank sponsors, partners and vendors for their help with your happening.

  1. Share the Love

If you host an event that garners the attention of local media, that’s fantastic! Getting media coverage is an exciting thing for any business, and it’s something that should be shared far and wide. Post social updates thanking the outlet for mentioning you and tag them. It’ll show you are grateful for their attention and help build the relationship for future events. If you get a reporter to cover your party, they are only an email away the next time you want them to know what’s going on.

  1. Assess Your Success

Come January, the holidays will be over. While this is time to appreciate the success of your holiday marketing efforts, it’s also the time to go through your strategy with a fine-toothed comb. Track analytics like online conversion rates, social mentions, event attendees, holiday sales, new social fans, website hits and advertising costs. Assess the overall success of the project and meet with your team to see how the approach could be improved for next year.

These 13 strategies will surely excite your customers and get them excited about your business this holiday season. If you are looking for more ways to sprinkle holiday sparkle into your digital marketing strategy this year, check out these additional articles:

Top 3 Tips to Achieve Great Holiday Publicity

Social Media Campaign Tips to Beat Holiday Stress

Santa and Rudolph – PR Lessons from Holiday Traditions

Social Media Marketing: 4 Last-Minute Holiday Tactics

Happy Holidays!

Special Offer: Complimentary Consultation

Three Girls Media, Inc. is a public relations and social media management agency founded in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley with a team in the Seattle area. We love working with small and emerging companies across the nation to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO, and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs.    Call 408-218-2391 or contact us today to arrange yours! 
 

The post Advice for Sprinkling Holiday Spirit into Your Marketing Strategy appeared first on Three Girls Media.

5 PR and Social Media Resolutions for 2017

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The New Year brings excitement, promise and a new opportunity to sharpen your public relations, social media and digital marketing skills. Many people make personal resolutions like eating healthier and trying new things, so why not make a few resolutions for your business as well? The following five intentions can help you reach new customers, make connections with influencers and build your brand’s name recognition. Read on to learn them!

Happy New Year from Three Girls Media!

  1. Resolve to Make a Comprehensive Marketing Plan

Establishing a new strategy for 2017 requires coming up with a comprehensive plan. Luckily, that doesn’t have to be as difficult as it sounds! As Emily Sidley, Three Girls’ Sr. Dir. Of Publicity, explained in her blog post, How to Create Your 2017 Marketing Plan, there are five simple steps to drafting the perfect plan. They are:

  1. Review the previous year, determining what strategies worked and where there may be areas of opportunity.
  2. Establish new goals that are SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely).
  3. Brainstorm new and exciting marketing strategies.
  4. Write out your plan visually. It’s helpful to do this month-by-month so you can see how strategies work together.
  5. Put your plan into action and evaluate it after about 6 months.

Some common strategies that may be helpful to include in your marketing plan are:

  • Press release creation and distribution
  • Hosting and promoting local events
  • Posting to social media with helpful, relevant and engaging content
  • Leveraging the power of social media advertising
  • Blogging regularly
  • Targeted editorial media pitching
  • Creating and sending email or printed company newsletters
  1. Resolve to Be More Active on Social Media

There are tons of reasons to be active on social media!

There are countless reasons why your business should be on social media; you’ll have the opportunity to reach a new demographic, get to know your audience on a personal level and even leverage the value of social channels for customer service. Here are just a few of the many reasons it’s worth it to invest in a social media presence:

  • Social media has a 100 percent higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing
    • 93 percent of the most engaging posts on Facebook include images
    • 84 percent of people who follow/interact with SMBs online are likely to share a positive experience with their friends
    • Of those who use the internet, 76 percent of Americans use social media
    • 74 percent of consumers cited relying on social media when making purchasing decisions
    • 72 percent of social followers are more likely to make a future purchase
    • 71 percent of consumers who have had a good social media experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others
    • 70 percent of those helped via social media will return as a customer in the future
    • 50 percent of shoppers have made a purchase based on a recommendation through a social media network
    • 47 percent of people who follow brands on social media are more likely to visit the company’s website

As a business owner, you are likely strapped for time; publishing updates to social media may be the lowest priority on your list. We understand that there isn’t always the time to consistently maintain your social profiles. That’s why Three Girls Media is here to help! From content creation to posting at the optimal time of day and engaging with your followers, we do the work for you so you can focus on other aspects of your business. Contact us today for details!

  1. Resolve to Make Better Connections with Journalists

One great item to focus on in the New Year is to form stronger and more solid relationships with writers, reporters and journalists. They are your gateway to the world; the ones who will be telling your story. Take the time to get to know them and the topics they write about, make sure your pitches are well crafted and relevant, and that you always offer something of value to their readers.

Writing perfect pitches and drafting excellent media advisories may not turn out successfully if you don’t have a solid plan in place for media relations. Building strong connections with journalists in the New Year can be one of the best ways to get your pitch heard and your company featured in their next story; many journalists are more likely to open a pitch if they already have a working relationship with the person who sent it. Here are four ways for you to get started in 2017:

  1. Comment on Journalists’ Recent Work: Researching the reporter’s beat, or specialty, reading their recent articles and letting them you enjoyed their work know when you contact them can show the media you are following their stories and legitimately want to connect. For extra points, read their stories from the past 6 months or so and make sure they haven’t already covered a similar story or trend.
  2. Always Be Pleasant and Respectful in Interactions: Journalists are busy people with quick deadlines and turnarounds for their work. They also receive hundreds of pitches every day, so they may be annoyed by your uninvited communication. Bothering them at all hours to cover you or your business can be an easy way to ensure they won’t pick up the story. Be pleasant, friendly and respectfully persistent in your pitching and follow up approaches.
  3. Contact Them Where (And When) They Want to Be Reached: In addition to reading a journalist’s recent stories, you should also brush up on their preferred contact details. Since journalists change beats and publications frequently, make sure the information is up to date, they haven’t moved along to another position or company and that you contact them during appropriate times of the day.
  4. Follow directions: If a reporter tells you they want high-resolution images or samples of a specific product, do your best to follow their directions. Ask when their deadline is and then get them what they need before you miss the opportunity to land media coverage.


    4.
    Resolve to Be More Accessible

    This New Year, try to be more accessible for journalists and your customers.

This New Year, make it a priority to be more open and accessible for your clients, fans and customers. Part of being accessible is having a presence on social media, but another tactic to increase your brand recognition and awareness is to create a one-stop shop for anyone needing more information about your company or its products.

Consider creating an Electronic Press Kit (EPK), which will house all relevant information about your business online. It’s important to remember that an electronic press kit is written for journalists, not consumers, so it should be free of overly sales-y language. A great EPK includes the following elements:

  • Your Contact Information: How do you prefer to be contacted? List this at the very top of your EPK so it’s easy to find. Make sure you include a phone number and email address so they can get a hold of you quickly.
  • Your Unique Benefits: What does your company do, and what makes you special? This should be clear within the very first paragraph of your EPK.
  • Industry-Specific Details: Is there anything your company specializes in that you need to explain?
  • Details About the Company’s Founder: Would it be helpful to include details about yourself as the founder/owner? For some companies it makes sense, although for others it’s not necessary.
  • Product Price: How much does your product or service cost?
  • Company Location: Where is your company located? How can consumers contact you?
  • Story Ideas: What would be a great story about your business? We suggest 3-5 basic ideas for journalists’ stories about your business.
  • Extra Information: Is there anything else you think needs to be included? Some companies have an interesting story behind how they started or have a cool initiative worth sharing.
  1. Resolve to Take Advantage of Seasonal Marketing Opportunities

While we just passed the holiday season, the New Year is a perfect time to plan out your seasonal marketing approach for next year, in addition to determining the success of your previous campaigns. Take a look at what worked and what didn’t, make notes of challenges and opportunities and think of a new way to approach seasonal opportunities. And don’t forget about other holidays, like Valentine’s Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and your business’ anniversaries, too!

There are several ways to reach out to your customers during holidays; they involve combining traditional marketing techniques with digital tactics:

  • Deck out your social profiles with seasonal imagery
  • Include website and social links on all printed marketing materials
  • Hold a seasonal contest and engage social media fans
  • Create a seasonal, limited-edition product
  • Send e-newsletter greetings, wishing customers joy during holidays
  • Partner with another business to hold a local event
  • Share photos of holiday prep via Instagram, Twitter and Facebook
  • Hold a holiday sale

These social media and public relations resolutions will put your business on the path to success in the New Year. From all of us at Three Girls Media, we hope your entry into 2017 is a great one. We hope you have a safe and restful holiday, and will have a productive and successful New Year!

Also be sure to check out:

3 PR Lessons from New Year’s Resolutions

What New Year’s Eve Can Teach You About Social Media Marketing

Social Media Strategy: How to Jumpstart Pinterest in the New Year

 

Special Offer: Complimentary Consultation

Three Girls Media, Inc. is a public relations and social media management agency founded in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley with a team in the Seattle area. We love working with small and emerging companies across the nation to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO, and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs.    Call 408-218-2391 or contact us today to arrange yours! 
 

The post 5 PR and Social Media Resolutions for 2017 appeared first on Three Girls Media.

Gardening in a Greenhouse: Tips for PR, Email Marketing and More

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Over the holidays, I received an awesome new gift: a miniature indoor/outdoor greenhouse to grow my tropical plants! As you may have learned by reading my articles, I am an avid gardener, and naturally, I was excited to try out this new gardening technique! My husband gave me the greenhouse, and it turns out he bought it after seeing an email marketing newsletter. This got me thinking about the benefits of email marketing and ways that this cool new addition to my home was similar to promoting a business via public relations. First, let’s dive into some benefits of using email marketing to promote your products and services.

Gardening in a greenhouse isn’t too different from public relations!

Benefits of Email Marketing

Email marketing is a strong tactic to keep in your public relations arsenal since it’s a great way to reach your consumers in their native environment. Emails are non-intrusive and offer a valuable opportunity to put your messaging right in front of your target audience. As Visually explains, here are some benefits of email marketing:

  • 70 percent of marketers rate email marketing as the best path to increasing marketing ROI
  • 40 percent of B2B marketers have gained high-quality leads from email marketing
  • 66 percent of customers have made a purchase after opening an email marketing message
  • Email marketing delivers about $44 per dollar spent of ROI, the highest of any digital marketing effort
  • Emails with social sharing buttons increase click-through rates by 158 percent

7 Tips for Email Marketing Success

Ensure your email marketing campaigns are successful by following this advice:

  1. Use a Strong, Enticing Subject Line:

    This is one of the most important parts of your newsletter; if you don’t encourage people to open your email, you’ll never be able to hook them for a sale, no matter how great the contents are. 64 percent of people say they have opened an email based on its subject line, so make sure yours is engaging.

  2. Strong Visuals:

    Your company’s e-newsletter should reflect your brand’s overall look and feel. In addition to choosing similar colors and styles, be sure to include copyright-safe, high-res images and your company logo in the message.

  3. Offer Helpful Content:

    Make sure your company’s e-newsletters are easy to read and provide information of value to your readers. If you want to share an article you’ve written that’s longer than a couple of paragraphs, post it on your blog and link to it from the newsletter. This is a great way to drive traffic to your blog. Also, a brief introduction at the top of the email is a fantastic way to infuse a bit of your brand’s unique personality.

  4. Showcase Savings:

    The FarmTek advertisement that won my husband over did a great job of showcasing customer savings. A greenhouse that was originally $78.95 had a special price of $29.95; this price reduction was illuminated clearly in the e-newsletter, helping prospective customers see the value they would receive. Making savings and deals clear can help you hook customers right off the bat.

  5. Include Live Links:

    Another thing the FarmTek advertisement did well was include clickable links, allowing for easy purchasing of their products. When customers clicked the photos of products, they were directed right to a landing page to buy. Similarly, when I clicked the FarmTek logo, I was brought right to their home page. Having live links like this makes buying simple and saves your company from customer service headaches as buyers repeatedly ask you how to make a purchase.

  6. Keep it Typo-Free:

    Text full of errors is not only confusing, it’s unprofessional. Keep your copy clean, clear and crisp to show your best face to your clients and customers. Having a co-worker glance over your work before you hit ‘send’ is a good habit to get into.

  7. Include a Strong Call to Action:

    After reading your newsletter, you’ll want your customers to take action, in the form of making a purchase or contacting you for details about your services. In order to do this, make it clear at the end that you want them to do something in the form of a strong call to action.

6 PR Tips from My New Greenhouse

  1. Make a Strategic Plan

Gardening, like public relations, requires some careful planning ahead. You can’t simply throw seeds in ground and expect wild success. For example, spacing plants in your garden is important to make sure they don’t crowd each other and compete for sunlight. Similarly, you can’t just buy social media advertisements on a whim and expect them to work well in tandem with your existing marketing efforts.

Your business doesn’t need to be on every social media channel just like the gardener doesn’t need to cultivate every plant that grows in nature.

When setting up my new greenhouse, I had to decide which plants should be in the greenhouse, and which were okay to stay outside. This required knowing and researching the best growing conditions for a wide variety of plants, including a pineapple plant, palm and coffee trees. This is similar to PR; you must make decisions based on your marketing goals and priorities.

As part of your public relations planning, decide when you will post updates, taking into account recent trends and most active days of the week. You don’t want to publish 10 Twitter updates in one day then none for the next week. Plan ahead to ensure your content is spaced out over time and your audience knows when to be on the lookout for your next blog post or update.

However, your business doesn’t need to be on every social media channel just like the gardener doesn’t need to cultivate every plant that grows in nature. If the cost of a public relations campaign is your concern, pick out the most important elements to focus on and channel your funds and efforts there. As a bonus, Three Girls Media offers all of our services on an a la carte basis so not only do you know exactly what you are paying for, you’re only committing to services that are the right strategy for you and your business.

  1. Add Some Diversity

Diversity is important in gardening to increase the yield and growth rates of all your plants. By adding a wide variety of natural elements, you ensure fertile soil and a bountiful harvest for years to come. Much like the well-tended garden, PR requires a diverse array of content. Consistently recycle and change your ideas so they are new and fresh. This will also help with your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Use a wide range of social media platforms and publish different types of content to outperform other sites in a search engine.

  1. Pay Attention to Timing

When gardening, timing is very important, for many reasons. Not only do you have to watch out for seasonal timing, like planning for shorter daylight hours and colder temperatures, but you also have to remember to water your plants based on a regular schedule.

Timing is also very important for publishing your content, both seasonally and daily. Like planting seeds, published content should be posted when the audience is most likely to read it. The most effective times to post on social media vary by platform and should be spaced out consistently. Seasonally, pay attention to trends like Holiday Gift Guides, Mother’s/Father’s Day and other major attention-grabbing holidays.

  1. Adapt Your Strategy

Plants and animals have developed marvelous adaptations to their natural environment in order to survive. The same is true of gardening and public relations. Gardeners working on a rocky slope or a plot of land with infertile soil must research and adapt their techniques in order to grow their crops. They adjust their behaviors to fit the confines of their world. Public relations professionals should also adapt to the needs of the audience. If your business is seeking more public visibility, create social media pages and interact with potential customers daily.

  1. Remember: Location, Location, Location

    Cultivate a PR plan that grows strong.

Where you put your plants is important, just like where you distribute your PR message online. You wouldn’t place your garden in swampland if you were growing arid desert plants, much like you wouldn’t distribute an update meant for Facebook on Twitter. Make sure to approach media contacts that align with the message you are sending and that they are a good fit. Create presence on social media platforms that are going to distribute your message in a way that aligns with your brand’s image.

  1. Make Adjustments as Necessary

Because of the new environment my plants were living in, as expected, there were initially some complications. After living in the new greenhouse for a few weeks, I began to notice some problems. When the moisture increased inside the greenhouse, the plants got too wet and showed signs of molding. To combat this, I quickly made adjustments by opening the door to remove humidity, and watered them less. Making these small adjustments in a timely manner saved their lives.

Like all changes, your public relations plan is also bound to experience a few hiccups along the way. What’s important is not the amount of problems you encounter, but how you manage those issues along the way. Assigning a PR point person to manage the account (like someone from our experienced team of publicists at Three Girls Media) can help you mitigate these risks and solve problems as they arise, not months down the road. Having quick attention to complications, such as a customer complaint on social media, and solving them as quickly as possible can make all the difference.

I’m so excited to grow all kinds of plants in my new greenhouse, and look forward to implementing these public relations lessons in future campaigns. Are you a gardener? What PR lessons have you learned from growing plants? For more articles on public relations planning, check out these additional posts:

Spring into Public Relations! Practical Advice for Your Campaign

4 Tips for a Successful Email Marketing Campaign

[Public Relations Guide] How to Start a Successful PR Campaign

 

Special Offer: Complimentary Consultation

Three Girls Media, Inc. is a public relations and social media management agency founded in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley with a team in the Seattle area. We love working with small and emerging companies across the nation to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO, and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs.    Call 408-218-2391 or contact us today to arrange yours! 
 

The post Gardening in a Greenhouse: Tips for PR, Email Marketing and More appeared first on Three Girls Media.

Out of Marketing Luck? 6 Lessons from ‘Schitt’s Creek’

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I love binge-watching television shows on Netflix, especially since the service allows you to watch multiple seasons at once instead of having to wait each week for a new episode of a show to air. While browsing through my suggested titles, I came across a comedy gem that has quickly become one of my favorites, Schitt’s Creek. The Canadian show, created by father and son team Eugene and Daniel Levy, is about the fictional Rose family, which includes parents John (Eugene Levy) and Moira (Catherine O’Hara), and adult children David (Daniel Levy) and Alexis (Annie Murphy). So far two full seasons of Schitt’s Creek are now available on Netflix, but if you can’t wait to watch Season 3, catch it Wednesdays at 8pm/7pm Central on Pop TV.

Out of marketing luck? Read this post for advice.

Once modern royalty due to the success of John’s ‘Rose Video’ chain of stores, they have fallen on hard times after the government seized their property because their crooked business manager allegedly failed to pay taxes. This leads to the family moving to the Podunk, rural town of Schitt’s Creek that John once purchased as a joke gift for David, simply because of the name. This fish-out-of-water saga is filled with awkward hijinks, culture shock and gut-busting laughs. It’s also filled with lessons that can be applied to public relations; read on to learn six of them.

6 Public Relations Lessons from ‘Schitt’s Creek’

1. Have a Backup Plan, Just in Case

It’s important to always have a Plan B and avoid “putting all of your eggs in one basket.” In Schitt’s Creek, if the Rose family hadn’t have bought the town as a joke purchase back in 1991, they’d be homeless and living on the streets. Luckily for them, they have this one asset that the government allowed them to keep as a backup plan. They are forced to move into the town’s only motel and squeeze their formerly lavish life into just two modest rooms.

Just like having the town to live in saved them from a more undesirable life, your business should have a backup plan (on a smaller scale, of course!) Are you investing all of your marketing resources in one place or only purchasing advertisements on one social platform? Instead of throwing your money into one tactic and hoping for the best, do your research to find out the top couple of places your primary audience is and plan accordingly. For example, a company’s marketing dollars would be better spent on LinkedIn or a business blog if they are trying to reach business professionals, while a company selling beauty products might do better on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook or YouTube tutorials.

2. Assign a Qualified Spokesperson

As the Rose family tries to pick up the pieces in Schitt’s Creek, one of their first major wins is a commercial deal with Herb Ertlinger’s Winery. Moira, a washed up former soap opera TV star, was given the role because the winery owner was a big fan of her show. Having a spokesperson to speak for your company is a smart idea to control your public image, although in Schitt’s Creek, Herb Ertlinger was probably better off choosing someone other than Moira, as she struggles to pronounce the brand’s name correctly on camera and throws diva-like fits as she is challenged by acting after a long hiatus.

I recommend having a point person on your public relations strategy at all times; you never know when you might receive a media request or a customer complaint that needs to be attended to in a timely manner. Make sure you spokesperson is representative of your brand and is well-versed in what to say and what to avoid when speaking to the public. Unlike Moira, your point person should always be up to date with the latest company product offerings, and always share factual information with consumers.

3. Cultivate Strong Relationships – You Never Know When You May Need Them

Too many times on Schitt’s Creek, the Rose family insults the members of the town because they are not used to living without the luxurious comforts of their former life. However, the townspeople are always there to help them out. After living in the Schitt’s Creek for nearly a year, the Roses begin to form strong relationships, gain employment and even fall in love. These friendships strengthen over time and help get the family out of many sticky situations. Just like in the show, public relations is all about forming, cultivating and nurturing strong relationships.

Public relations is all about forming, cultivating and nurturing strong relationships.

Communication is a personalized process that requires attention and care; excellent media relations are achieved by creating key relationships and going above and beyond. To be successful in media relations, take time to craft a compelling story angle for your story that journalists will appreciate. Send them thank you notes when they write about your business. Always be there when they need to reach you and they will see you as a reliable source of information.

4. Make Your Message Clear – Or You Might Regret It

You have a message you want to share with the world, but is it clear enough for your audience to understand? In Schitt’s Creek, the Rose family faces strong opposition with members of the town over ambiguity in the town’s welcome sign. When John first sees it, he is shocked to find it features a man and a woman in an inappropriate-looking position. As an outsider, he immediately sees this as a problem since he is trying to sell the town.

Worried the offensive sign might scare away potential buyers, he takes on the city council to change it, however this doesn’t go over well with the small town folk. When John learns that the man in the sign is City Founder Horace Schitt, the town’s Mayor, Roland, tells John that the woman in the image is actually Horace’s sister, not his wife. Roland promises to make the message clearer, by adding an additional sign that says, “Don’t worry – it’s his sister!” thinking this will fix the situation. As you can expect, it doesn’t help much.

Clearing up ambiguity is crucial.

Is your brand’s message falling victim to ambiguity? Keep these four elements of a strong story in mind as you communicate with your consumers:

  • Theme: One of the first elements of a good story is to set the tone, or its theme. If you are not clearly establishing the world your company lives in, your customers may not understand the message you are trying to get across. Know your industry and audience well so you can target content to them appropriately.
  • Plot: Good business communication should offer your audience something of value (like a how-to article) or a piece of news they previously had not known. Before you begin to write your content, be sure you know the main message you want readers to take away after they read it.
  • Structure: If you are unable to organize information in a coherent structure and present it to readers in easy-to-understand sections, you risk losing them to those who can communicate the message better. If you have a large piece of research like a whitepaper, you can break it up into smaller articles or share it on social media.
  • Characters: In all good stories, it’s important to have solid characters. Letting readers and fans into your world is a great way to include them and make them a player in your story. You will also be able to establish industry credibility, making you a top influencer in your field.

5. Honor Your History

Like Roland’s desire to keep the inappropriate town sign in place in order to preserve his family’s history, your business should also honor and share its journey with your audience. A great way to do this is to take advantage of various hashtags on social media, like #ThrowBackThursday. Use this as an opportunity to share old company photos, stories and events. You can also help your customers get to know your team members by including them in your social posts; your audience will appreciate being included in your story.

6. Get to Know Your Audience

Like all of the Rose family, David Rose is a little out of touch with reality. In Season 1, he finds himself short on money and in possession of too many luxury clothes. To try and make some money, and free up some closet space, he decides to sell some of his designer labels to a local consignment store. Unfortunately for him, he is not successful in selling an $840 shirt at a rural thrift shop. The fact that he thought he would means he was out of touch with his audience.

Are you in sync with your customers’ desires, motivations and actions? If you feel out of the loop, start by spending time where they are so see what types of content they are liking, sharing and engaging with. If possible, offer a customer survey where you can learn more about what products they like and areas where they see room for improvement within your company.

Have you watched Schitt’s Creek? What other PR takeaways have you identified in between the laughs? While you’re catching up on binge-watching, be sure to read these other great Three Girls blog posts:

5 Helpful Marketing Tips from the Gilmore Girls Revival

[Social Media Marketing] 3 Lessons from TV Reruns

7 Terrific Public Relations Tips from the TV Show ‘White Collar’

Special Offer: Complimentary Consultation

Three Girls Media, Inc. is a public relations and social media management agency founded in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley with a team in the Seattle area. We love working with small and emerging companies across the nation to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO, and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs.    Call 408-218-2391 or contact us today to arrange yours! 
 

The post Out of Marketing Luck? 6 Lessons from ‘Schitt’s Creek’ appeared first on Three Girls Media.

4 Blogging Lessons from the Fashion World and More!

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Do you know how fashion and blogging are similar?

A couple weeks ago, a memory popped up on my Facebook newsfeed of a clothing design I created as part of a final for one my fashion merchandising courses in college. I had so much fun in those classes learning everything that goes into designing and marketing clothing, and many of the lessons have transferred into my career as a publicist and blogger for Three Girls Media. Keep reading to discover ways fashion lessons can be used in blogging and other useful tools to get you writing!

4 Lessons from Fashion to Use in Blogging

There are many parallels between fashion and blogging that may not seem obvious at first; however, the more you sit and analyze what makes fashion designers stand out, the clearer it becomes.  Here are a few ways you can use basic lessons in the fashion industry to help with your small business’ blogging efforts.

  • Know your target market. In both fashion and blogging, you can’t create a piece without knowing who exactly you want to reach. Trying to please everyone’s pallet will only lead to disappointment. By narrowing down who you are creating a clothing design or blog post for, you increase you the likelihood that those people will see and appreciate what you’re offering them.
  • Styles come and go. Have you ever noticed that clothing trends seem to peak and recede? The same can be seen in blogging and writing. Following and keeping up to date on the current best practices in blog writing styles will help you climb and stay at the top of the results when your customers come searching for you.
  • Bold statements can get a lot of attention. A daring statement in fashion can get you the attention of major critics and take your piece to a whole new level. In blogging and digital marketing this is called going viral. The piece catches fire and is shared across the web in huge numbers taking your brand from barely known to wildly popular.
  • Success takes time and patience. While catching the eyes of critics and customers by going viral is a great way to boost your visibility, most of the time it doesn’t work that way. The process is a slow and steady climb to the top; this is true for both fashion and blogging. You need to have patience and dedicate yourself to the process. You may start with only a few followers, but if you stay with it and don’t give up, you will see your supporters grow!

However, these lessons are only useful if you have a blog for your company. If you haven’t taken the plunge to write for your business, but want to get started, the following three steps will help you easily boost your business’ online marketing in no time!

3 Steps to Starting Blogging

With consumers turning to the web more often to learn about products and businesses, blogging is one of the best ways to reach them. Blogging for your small business allows you to directly share news and information with your target audience and current customers. Try these three steps:

  1. Starting a new blog is easy. Follow these 3 simple steps and start writing today!

    Select a Name: Choosing the perfect name is one of the most creative aspects of a new blogging venture. The name should be catchy and easy to remember so readers can easily return to read new content in the future. Take into consideration your company’s offerings, about your target audience, how they might relate to your content and select a blog name that is witty, captivating and engaging.

  2. Select a Platform: In order to create a blog that is user-friendly, be sure to use platforms that are among the best blog sites available. WordPress is great platform that offers terrific free features in addition to paid-membership benefits for the ultimate freedom in customizing your blog. In addition to WordPress, other sites such as Blogger and Squarespace offer user-friendly designs and can be set up in just a few minutes!
  3. Create a Post: Now that you’ve selected the perfect name and platform for your blog, the next step is to fill it with useful and engaging content for your audience. Be sure to mix up the content to include text, images and videos to keep the content diverse and captivating to ensure long-term loyalty from your readers.

Whether your small business offers innovative services or groundbreaking products, blogging is one of the best ways to share news in way that can be easily sent through email, posted on social media and more.

6 Steps for Creating a Blog Post

Once you have created your business’ blog, you have to start writing and posting articles to it consistently. If writing is not your strong point, don’t worry – you can still create some amazing pieces with the help of these 6 steps.

  1. Brainstorm. Spend a few minutes writing down ideas. What do you plan to write about? Think about topics that might be of interest to your readers. Are there any tips they might be interested in? Is there anything in the news you can relate to your industry? Or anything you’ve been doing lately that can help your target audience?
  1. Keyword Research. This step is often overlooked, but one of the most important writing tips when it comes to blogging for your company. You want your post to be strong for SEO, so you need to include keywords throughout your post. Google Analytics is a free way to research strong words and phrases; take the time to look up a couple of focus terms to use throughout your article and in the headlines and titles.
  1. Create an Outline. This is one of those writing tips they teach you at school. Before you start writing, you want to know where your blog post is going. Create a quick outline that includes the main points you want to cover.
  1. Write. As you write your post, make sure you include your keywords in places that make sense. Yes, you want to include those words and phrases at least five times, but you don’t want the article to sound unnatural either. In fact, the practice of keyword stuffing (repeating your keywords over and over again) can actually hurt your SEO, in addition to looking unprofessional for your readers.
  1. Proofread. Get in the habit of proofreading everything you write – blog posts, emails, social media updates. A typo can actually change the meaning sometimes, and spelling or grammar errors make you look less professional to your readers and followers.
  1. Upload. When you upload your blog post, include an image (make sure you use one you’re legally allowed to use) so it’s visually appealing for your readers. Also, in addition to making sure the formatting of the post looks right, be sure you select one main category and add 1-3 specific tags for your site’s visitors. It’s also important to fill out the HTML title / meta description; this is what will show up in search results, so make it compelling!

Whether your career is in fashion or writing, one of the most common ailments to plague creative professionals is the dreaded wall that blocks our way to new inspiration and ideas. When faced with this road block, all the steps, tricks and tips won’t help you create a new exciting piece that meets the needs of your audience. Have no fear though, there are some easy ways you can break down the wall and get back to writing.

3 Ways to Cure Writer’s Block for Bloggers

  1. When you run into a wall while writing, here are 3 ways to get the ideas flowing.

    Ask questions. I love when I can ask a business a question on social media and get a direct answer quickly. Not only do I learn more information, but I also receive recognition and the chance to be heard. The audience you are trying to reach has questions for you, but it’s possible they might just be afraid to ask. Next time you’re wandering around social media, post a question similar to this: “What do you want to know about [insert your business/industry here]?” or “What would you love to know more about in relation to [insert your business’ field of expertise here]?” This gives your audience the chance to speak up and for you to get some blog topics, as well.

  1. Speak with your team. The great thing about a business is that it is made up of members who are all on the same team. During a staff meeting, ask your fellow teammates what they think would make a great blog post. Brainstorm ideas to get the content rolling. Consider upcoming events, promotions and specials your business might be doing and incorporate those as well.
  1. Use a topic generator. A few months ago, I got one of the best emails ever from HubSpot. They sent me a free blog topic generator and I’ve used it so many times to help get the ideas bouncing in my head. But they’re not the only resource. Inspirational articles and visual stimulators (such as Pinterest) are also extremely helpful tools you can use to break that wall down.

Once you have broken down the barrier to creativity, you are on the way to making pieces that inspire and feed your consumer’s appetite.

With these tools you are now armed with everything you need to get a start on blogging for your small business. If you want to learn even more on how to use blogging in your marketing strategy check out these other Three Girls Media posts. Happy writing!

The post 4 Blogging Lessons from the Fashion World and More! appeared first on Three Girls Media.

How to Create an Effective Business Blog for Your Company

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A woman sitting at a computer

Follow these steps to make your business blog effective!

Did you know small companies that blog receive 126% more leads than those that don’t blog? Research continues to show how effective it is for entrepreneurs to invest in a business blog (see the statistics I’ve included below). Still, how do you get started? Today’s post includes helpful tips and tricks, in addition to the latest data surrounding the importance of using a blog in your marketing plan.

11 Reasons to Invest in a Business Blog [Statistics]

For years, statistics have shown the power of blogging as part of your marketing strategy; the latest research continues to back it up. As this infographic shows:

  1. Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed pages (which are really important for SEO).
  2. 92% of companies who blog multiple times per day have acquired a customer from their blog.
  3. 90% of consumers find custom content useful, 78% believe that companies behind content are interested in building good relationships.
  4. 81% of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from blogs.
  5. 81% of companies consider their blogs “useful,” “important” or “critical.”
  6. 68% of consumers are likely to spend time reading content from a brand they are interested in.
  7. Business to business marketers who use blogs generate 67% more leads than those that do not.
  8. 61% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.
  9. 60% of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content on its site.
  10. Once you write 21-54 blog posts, blog traffic generation increases by up to 30%.
  11. SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate.

How to Create Your Business Blog in 4 Steps

Step 1: Set Up Your Blog

The first step to creating a business blog is to set one up on your website! This guide from Website Setup explains how to do this, including important steps like picking your blogging platform (at Three Girls Media we recommend WordPress), setting up your blog, customizing your blog, etc. Of course, contact us if you need help! We’re happy to answer your questions or put you in touch with someone that can set it up for you.

Step 2: Create a Content Strategy

A picture of a calendar next to a laptop, smartphone and cup of coffee

Have you taken the time to plan out your business blog’s content strategy?

How often do you plan to update your business blog? What type of content will you include? Sit down with a calendar to answer these questions. First of all, decide how often you plan to publish new articles to your blog. Is once a week realistic? Or can you even manage twice a week? Build time into your schedule to write and upload posts so you can stay on track.

Once you know how often you’re blogging, brainstorm what type of content you want to publish. Will you share “how-to” guides? Or preview new products? Maybe you’ll share a client case study or write a post that includes some sort of commentary surrounding current events. Be sure you think about ways you can tie seasonal elements into your blog content, too, and make note in your calendar of any deadlines you don’t want to miss so you stay on track. Now you have an editorial calendar for your blog!

Here’s a tip: keep a pen and notepad with you so you can write down blog ideas you have no matter where you are – at the store, dropping the kids off or cooking dinner. Every once in a while, sit down with your list and plan out when you will write and post each article. The plan might change, but it eliminates one more thing to think about when you sit down to write. Plus, if you wake up knowing what you plan to blog about that afternoon, you can mull it over in the back of your mind as you check email, wait for a page to load or drive to a lunch appointment so you have a starting point once you actually sit down to computer to begin.

Step 3: Begin Blogging!

Years ago, blogger Chris Brogan shared his simple blogging formula with his readers; it continues to be relevant today because it includes a very important step: keep it about the readers. Here’s what he shares:

  1. Decide WHAT the Post Should DO for You. This can include a call to action, attracting business, promoting someone else, etc.
  2. Ask Yourself: How Can I Be Helpful? Think about how your post is helping your readers. Are you providing insight or advice? Telling them about a new tool that will make their life easier? Brogan says he relies on his readers wanting tips, advice and ideas they can use for themselves – not a bad way to help out.
  3. Start Writing. After coming up with his headline and finding an image, Brogan starts with a personable lead-in that’s about 30 words long. He uses formatting to help his readers and ends his posts with a question or a call to action to tell the reader what he wants them to do.

A few steps I would add:

  1. Format. Brogan mentioned this briefly in Step 3, but it’s important enough it should be a separate step. After you’ve written the content of your post, think about how it looks visually. Is it easy to skim? Nearly half (43%) of internet users admit to skimming blog posts, so think of them when you add subheads, lists, etc. Plus, as an added bonus, using subheads with keywords in them can be good for SEO!
  2. Spend Time on Your Title. Our society continues to have shorter and shorter attention spans, so come up with something catchy that gives readers an idea of what the post is about and why they want to read it. Aim for 6-13 words as data shows they attract the highest and most consistent amount of traffic. CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer is a fantastic resource to use when fine-tuning your blog titles.
  3. Proofread. Although it might seem trivial, your grammar and punctuation determine your online voice. If your posts are rampant with incorrect spelling, numerous typos and confusing grammar, you lose your credibility – regardless of credentials and experience.
  4. Publicize Your Post. Once you have a new article up, tell people about it. Post it on your Facebook and Twitter pages. Link to it in your next e-newsletter. Link back to it in future blog posts you write, too!

Step 4: Optimize for SEO

Beautiful lady and a concept of a browsing in the internet. Searching line is drawn on the concrete wall above the lady.

Make sure your business blog is findable online by following these tips!

Of course, a major purpose of using a business blog as part of your marketing strategy is to increase your website visibility. In addition to providing quality content for readers, you need to make sure your posts are visible on search engines. Here are 5 ways to optimize your articles for SEO:

  1. Post as often as possible. As I wrote before, updating your blog regularly – down to the same time of day and day of the week – is vital. Statistics show websites that post daily receive 5 times more traffic and 4 times more sales leads than those that update weekly or less.
  2. Keep posting. Research shows that once you accumulate 51 blog posts, website traffic goes up by 53%, and then up by 3 times after 100 posts and 4.5 times after 200 posts.
  3. Add a photo. In addition to looking better for visitors, it’s important when blogging for SEO. Articles with more visuals also attract more backlinks.
  4. Get social. Statistics show, “41.67% of people measure the social influence of a blog by the number of social media shares it gets.” Make sure your blog includes social share buttons so it’s easy for your readers to post it on their social media channels. Plus, blogs with more social media followers are shown to have both higher traffic and more backlinks.
  5. Share the load. Nearly 63% of visitors think multiple authors make a blog more credible, so have a few people on your team take turns blogging and/or try to encourage guest posts.

A Couple of Quick Thoughts About Guest Blogging

Last year, Beth Adan wrote a great post about tips for writing a guest post as this is a fantastic way to increase your online visibility and drive traffic to your website. She recommended you spend some time on the website you’ll be guest posting on, share an article that helps the user or teaches them something and write your guest post well.

Where can you find guest blogging opportunities? GuestPost.com offers a tool that can help. Of course, this is an area Three Girls Media can assist as well!

In Conclusion

As you can see, a business blog can be very beneficial for your company, but it’s not simply posting random thoughts on your website. To use this strategy as an effective part of your marketing plan, you need to be intentional about writing posts regularly, creating quality content and optimizing the posts for SEO.

Want to know more? Check out these articles below for additional insight. Make sure you contact us for a complimentary consultation if you’d like help creating and managing your business blog, too!

Special Offer:

Sign up for a complimentary consultation during April and receive a Content Creation & Management Calendar valued at $375! Three Girls Media, Inc. is a public relations and social media management agency founded in the heart of California's Silicon Valley, and now based in the greater Seattle area. We love working with small and emerging companies across the nation to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO, and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs. Call 408-218-2391 or contact us today to arrange yours!
 

The post How to Create an Effective Business Blog for Your Company appeared first on Three Girls Media.


Effy Says…Blogging Works!

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Research shows blogging for business increases website traffic!

As Effy explains, the more you update your company’s blog, the higher your company’s website traffic. At Three Girls Media we recommend a minimum of once a week, but if you can publish more frequently, you’ll see even more results!

Stay tuned for more of Effy’s insight, or connect with Three Girls on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest tips and tricks from our favorite office dog!

The post Effy Says…Blogging Works! appeared first on Three Girls Media.

7 Ways to Improve Your Marketing with a Broadway Musical

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Extra, extra vintage newsboy

Don’t miss these 7 marketing tips from Newsies!

I’m not ashamed to say it: I’m a Fansie! I absolutely loved the musical, Newsies, and was thrilled to see it on the big screen thanks to Fathom events. For those of you that haven’t seen Newsies (yet!), it started as a 1992 movie musical starring Christian Bale, and then about 5 years ago was updated and rebooted into a Broadway musical. Disney then recorded it in front of a live audience and partnered with Fathom events to show it in movie theaters across the country.

What does all this have to do with marketing and public relations? As it turns out, there are a lot of lessons from the show that you can turn around and apply to your business! Keep reading for 7 tips to apply to your strategy.

About Newsies the Broadway Musical

IMDb.com shares a brief synopsis of the story:

Set in New York City at the turn of the century and based on a true story, Newsies is the rousing tale of Jack Kelly, a charismatic newsboy and leader of a ragged band of teenaged ‘newsies,’ who dreams only of a better life far from the hardship of the streets. But when publishing titans Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise distribution prices at the newsboys’ expense, Jack finds a cause to fight for and rallies newsies from across the city to strike and take a stand for what’s right.

Marketing Tip 1: It’s All About the Headline

If I hate the headlines, I’ll make up a headline, and I’ll say anything I hafta…”

The newsies know the importance of a strong headline; they sing about it at the beginning of the musical. The newsies are aware that the headline is what catches attention and gives consumers the desire to read the article.

Do you write your headlines (or rather blog titles and email subject lines) to entice consumers to read your content? It is both a science and an art, and takes time, to carefully craft a compelling, eye-catching title. Digital Information World shares a really fascinating infographic that recommends:

  • Including a number in your blog title (research shows odd numbers receive 20% more clicks than even numbers)
  • Using a keyword in your title, and then writing longer content to increase your SEO
  • Increasing social shares by using both powerful and emotional words like “Absolutely, Exciting, Scary and Ultimate.”

The infographic also shares more than 100 headline templates to use as you come up with a strong headline for your posts and emails. As you draft your content, consider the importance of the headline and give it the attention it demands.

Marketing Tip 2: Seize the Day!

Keep calm and seize the day with a crown written on a blue sign making a great concept.

Don’t wait to start your business’ marketing strategy!

“Now is the time to seize the day! Answer the call and don’t delay…”

You can plan all you want and everyone gets busy, but your marketing strategy won’t be successful unless you follow through – today! If it seems overwhelming, break your tactics down into smaller tasks you can divvy up throughout the week, so you spend a little bit of time on it each day. For example, come up with a plan like this:

Daily Tasks (morning and afternoon):

  • Check social media channels for engagement
  • Respond to phone calls, emails and social media comments

Weekly Tasks:

  • Mondays: Read industry articles
  • Wednesdays: Write social media updates for the coming week
  • Fridays: Write a new post for your blog

Monthly Tasks:

  • First week of the month: Create and distribute an e-newsletter
  • Third week of the month: Review website and social media analytics and consider what you may be able to tweak moving forward

Once you have a plan, seize the day and follow it!

Marketing Tip 3: Get Your Message Out

“…now let ’em hear it loud and clear!”

If no one hears your marketing message, they won’t respond to it. In Newsies, Joseph Pulitzer tries to stop the strike by issuing a ban on any papers covering the story. He knows that by preventing them from spreading the news, he silences them. Jack and the newsies, however, find a way around him and publish a paper with a strong call to action that rallies all the children in New York to strike and make their voices heard. By creating and distributing their own newspaper, they put their message directly in the hands of their target readers.

Are you presenting your target audience with a clear message? Follow these 4 steps:

Step 1: Define Your Target

Start by determining who you’re trying to reach, such as mothers with small children, managers at mid-level companies or young adults without children. This is called your target audience.

Step 2: Research

Find out everything you can about your target. What social media networks do they use? What do they read? What types of TV shows do they like? The more you find out about your target, the better you’ll be able to reach them.

Step 3: Create a Plan

Based on everything you know about your target, what’s the best way to reach them? If they search for businesses on Google, for example, maybe you want to put your resources into blogging to improve your search engine optimization (SEO), or if they’re most active on Instagram perhaps you should build a strong presence there.

Step 4: Follow Through with a Clear Message

As you follow your plan, make sure your primary message stays front of mind, and include strong calls to action to inspire your targets to take action and click through to your website, buy your product or contact you to learn more about your services.

Marketing Tip 4: The Power of the Image

A young woman taking pictures with a professional camera.

Make sure you include compelling images in all your company’s content.

“And who’s there with her camera and her pen as boys turn into men…”

Before Pulitzer bans any newspapers from covering strike news, a young journalist, Katherine, writes an article alongside a photo of the strike; it’s published in the New York Sun. Katherine later writes the article rallying New York’s kids at the end of the musical, and to make it even more powerful she uses a picture Jack drew depicting the life many other children face daily. Even in 1899, she could see the power of the image.

Today, images hold the same – if not even more – power. Hubspot reports:

  • People are only likely to remember 10% of information they hear three days later, however if a relevant image accompanies the same information, they retained 65% of it three days later.
  • 4 times as many consumers say they prefer to watch videos about a product rather than to read about it.
  • Using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19% and clickthrough rates by 65%.
  • Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images.
  • Articles with an image once every 75-100 words received double the social media shares as articles with fewer images.
  • Facebook posts with images see 2.3 times more engagement than those without images.

Do you include images and videos in all your marketing content? It’s important to have crisp, clear, quality, compelling images, but you don’t need to break the bank either. Canva.com is an excellent resource for creating your own photos that you can use in blog posts, social media updates and e-newsletters. You may also want to consider investing in stock photos. Some websites, such as 123RF, have lower-cost options for those that want access to an affordable database of pictures they can use as part of the marketing strategy.

Marketing Tip 5: Watch What Happens

“So just watch what happens…”

Katherine sings about watching what happens once she gives the “little guy” some ink, referring to the newsies strike. Are you watching what happens as you put time and resources into your marketing and public relations? It’s important enough that you should set reminders to check your analytics at regular intervals – such as the first Tuesday of every month – so you can see what content is performing well, which pages of your website are receiving the most traffic, which links in your e-newsletter are clicked, etc. By looking at these trends, you can see places you may want to make adjustments to maximize your marketing efforts.

Marketing Tip 6: Call in Reinforcements

“Newsies need our help today…Tell ’em, Brooklyn’s on the way!”

Although the main characters in the show are in Manhattan, they send word to newsies in other neighborhoods that they need help! Brooklyn comes in to help add legitimacy to the strike, inspiring newsies around the city to join in.

There are a couple of ways you can call in reinforcements to help:

  1. Hire a marketing or public relations firm to manage all or some of your strategy for you. Three Girls’ Publicist Danielle Winski recently shared some fantastic advice for selecting a PR partner to represent your business in her blog post, “Public Relations for Small Business: What You Need to Know.”
  2. Use influencer marketing to build relationships and ask influencers to help you get the word out about your company. Publicist Natalie Petersen explains more about how to do this in her blog post, “How to Use Influencer Marketing for Social Media Success.”

Marketing Tip 7: Review & Revise Your Content

Female hands typing on the laptop with flying letters

Don’t just hit publish on your first draft; review and revise it to make it as strong as possible.

“A smart girl, eh? Beautiful. Smart. Independent.”

Don’t be afraid to update and revise your content to make it stronger! The Broadway version of Newsies made several significant changes from the 1992 film, which I think vastly improved the story, such as:

  • Combining the characters of a newspaper reporter (played by Bill Pullman) and a newsie’s sister into one beautiful, smart, independent female reporter: Katherine.
  • Rearranging the order of the songs, giving Jack’s dream of moving to Santa Fe more weight and adding depth to his character.
  • Updating the lyrics that didn’t make a lot of sense.

After you create content, do you re-read it with a critical eye? In addition to looking for typos and spelling errors, think about ways you can make it stronger. These can be small changes (like using stronger adjectives or active verbs rather than passive ones) or major changes (such as a website redesign). You want your marketing content to be as strong as possible; don’t be so attached to it that you can’t revise it to make it better.

It’s Time to Get Out There!

“We’ll be out there, carryin’ the banner, see us out there, carryin’ the banner, always out there, carryin’ the banner…”

Are you ready to go out there and get the word out about your business? Here are a few more public relations and marketing articles that may help, and be sure to contact us if you have any questions or want help!

Special Offer:

Sign up for a complimentary consultation during April and receive a Content Creation & Management Calendar valued at $375! Three Girls Media, Inc. is a public relations and social media management agency founded in the heart of California's Silicon Valley, and now based in the greater Seattle area. We love working with small and emerging companies across the nation to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO, and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs. Call 408-218-2391 or contact us today to arrange yours!
 

The post 7 Ways to Improve Your Marketing with a Broadway Musical appeared first on Three Girls Media.

Effy Says…Repurpose Blog Content!

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Don’t let your blog content go to waste!

As Effy explains, no need to constantly reinvent the wheel! Follow her four tips to repurpose your existing blog content. In addition to saving you time, this can reinforce your brand’s message.

Stay tuned for more of Effy’s insight, or connect with Three Girls on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest tips and tricks from our favorite office dog!

The post Effy Says…Repurpose Blog Content! appeared first on Three Girls Media.

Effy Says…Blogging Can Make Your Website Explode!

Effy Says…Try Content Marketing!

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Content marketing can be an extremely effective strategy for your business!

As Effy explains, from blogging and social media management to email marketing and infographic creation, content marketing is a proven to be an effective way to generate sales leads! Need help? Visit our content marketing page to find out how we can assist.

Stay tuned for more of Effy’s insight, or connect with Three Girls on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest tips and tricks from our favorite office dog!

The post Effy Says…Try Content Marketing! appeared first on Three Girls Media.

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